Robert Eggers is doing Romeo and Juliet without Shakespeare's verse — Focus beat A24, Warner Bros and Sony to it
The actors will speak something billed as Olde English. First comes Werwulf, shot entirely in Middle English, out at Christmas.
Right, so Robert Eggers strikes again. If you know the bloke’s work – The Witch, The Lighthouse, The Northman, and last winter’s Nosferatu – you know you don’t really book tickets for a quiet night out. This man loves to take things you think you know (like vampires in castles, paranoid sailors, Puritan hysteria) and make them ten times stranger, a bit more feverish, and, somehow, even more historical. Now, Hollywood being Hollywood, you might expect him to eventually try his hand at the classics, but I doubt even his biggest fans guessed he’d zero in on Shakespeare, of all things.
Eggers Does Verona
The next film after Werwulf – yes, the one shot entirely in Middle English – will be Eggers’ take on Romeo and Juliet. That’s right, the iconic doomed romance everyone remembers from school, though usually not in this particular way. Apparently, Eggers is dead set on wringing something fresh out of it, and if the reporting in The Hollywood Reporter is to be believed, he’s going about it in the least Hollywood way possible. Instead of the usual iambic pentameter, his actors will be speaking in something billed as ‘Olde English’, which, for the record, is not the language Shakespeare wrote in, but you get the sense accuracy isn’t going to get in the way of atmosphere here.
The film is being set up at Focus Features, who seem eager to back whatever Eggers fancies – they handled The Northman, last year’s Nosferatu, and have his next, Werwulf, out at Christmas. Word is they had to fend off A24, Warner Bros., and Sony to land this Romeo and Juliet project, so it’s not as if the industry doesn’t believe in taking another swing at Shakespeare. Focus, though, are officially keeping their mouths shut about it; zero comment from them so far.
Nosferatu grossed $182 million globally during its run.
Another Take in a Long Line
Romeo and Juliet is hardly virgin territory for film. We’ve had the Zeffirelli version in the sixties, Baz Luhrmann gave it the MTV treatment in the nineties, and dozens of weirder or more tangential riffs – from West Side Story all the way to Underworld (yes, the vampires-and-werewolves one), and most recently Rosaline, the revisionist spin with Kaitlyn Dever. In fairness, Eggers is unlikely to repeat what’s come before. If someone’s going to yank the rug out from under the world’s most adapted love story, it’s probably him.
Read more: The Halo director’s next film is Romeo and Juliet set on the Moon in 2060
What About His Other Projects?
All this leaves the fate of a few other Eggers projects up in the air. Last June, there was noise about him doing a fresh adaptation of A Christmas Carol at Warner Bros. with Willem Dafoe set to play Scrooge – which, let’s be honest, is pretty inspired casting if it ever happens. Trouble is, Paramount have their own Ebenezer film with Johnny Depp coming in November 2026, and Paramount are in the process of scooping up Warner Bros. So, for the moment, Eggers’ Christmas Carol seems to have been sidelined.
There was also supposed to be a Labyrinth sequel with Eggers at the helm, but nobody’s had anything to report on that since 2025. So whether that’s still a thing, who knows.
First, Werwulf
Meanwhile, his next confirmed outing is Werwulf, set in fourteenth-century England, with dialogue entirely in Middle English. The cast includes Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Lily-Rose Depp, Willem Dafoe, Ralph Ineson, Bodhi Rae Breathnach and Katie Dickie. Release day? Christmas – same holiday slot as Nosferatu did in 2024.
- The Witch (2015): Debut, set in New England, historical horror.
- The Lighthouse (2019): Claustrophobic, black-and-white, two men and a foghorn.
- The Northman (2022): Norse vengeance, berserkers, volcanoes.
- Nosferatu (2024): Gothic remake, big box office.
- Werwulf (2026): Medieval, spoken in Middle English, out at Christmas.
- Romeo and Juliet (TBA): Shakespeare, Eggers twist, actors reportedly using Olde English.